I am still plowing through the health care bill from Democrats in the U.S. Senate, finding provisions that deserve a second look, and straining to figure out what huge chunks of this legalistic text actually mean.

On page 32, the bill would make hospitals publish a price list for basic services.

"Each hospital operating within the United States shall for each year establish (and update) and make public (in accordance with guidelines developed by the Secretary) a list of the hospital's standard charges for items and services provided by the hospital, including for diagnosis-related groups established under section 1886(d)(4) of the Social Security Act."

Of course, my first question was, "What is section 1886(d)(4) of the Social Security Act?"

Well, I went to the Social Security website to look up section 1886, which deals with payments to hospitals for inpatient hospital services, which you can find at http://bit.ly/80gr0T

It is an extensive mishmash of mumbo jumbo.  I couldn't even figure out what (d)(4) was, but a subsection (d) hospital is an acute care hospital that usually gets Medicare money.

Page 71 talks about penalties that will be levied against health care plans that do not modernize their financial and administrative transactions.

Page 158 bans people in prison from buying health insurance through the exchanges that would be set up.

I'm trying to figure out why that is needed, or what spurred it.

Page 220 starts the details of how some plans would be allowed to sell across state lines, but not until at least July 2013.  Later it says that multi-state exchange compacts among states cannot take effect until 2016.

Just in case you wondered, the tax penalties levied on individuals for failing to buy health insurance, those are not deductible on your 1040 form.

Page 565 has special rules for Indians (Native Americans), which say those with income below 300% of poverty don't have to do any cost sharing with the federal government to buy health insurance.  In other words, the feds pick up the whole tab.

Page 723 establishes some new offices in the Department of Health and Human Services, called the "Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation".

If you're still interested in leafing through the bill over Thanksgiving, you can download it at http://bit.ly/1e08qU

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!